Kara Mustafa Pasha

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Kara Mustafa Pasha

Headstone of Kara Mustafa, Edirne, Turkey

Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa (Born 1634/1635 – December 25, 1683) was an Ottoman military leader and grand vizier who was a central character in the empire's last attempts at expansion into central and eastern Europe.

According to Turkish records, Kara Mustafa was born in the Islamic year 1044 (i.e. AD 1634 or 1635). His name, Merzifonlu, hints that he was born in or near the city of Merzifon, Turkey. He was the son of Uruc Hasan Bey, a Turkish timariot (fief-holder), and rose through the ranks of the Ottoman military and government structure.

In contemporary Christian sources, Mustafa is universally described as both greedy and villainous. The veracity of this is naturally open to conjecture, although his nickname of Kara (black) can be interpreted in many ways.

He was adopted into the powerful Köprülü family at a young age, and served as a messenger to Damascus for his brother-in-law, the grand vizier Ahmed Köprülü. After distinguishing himself, Mustafa became a vizier in his own right, and by 1663, commander of the Ottoman Grand Fleet of the Aegean Sea.

He served as a commander of ground troops in a war against Poland in 1672, negotiating a peace settlement that added the province of Podolia to the empire. The victory enabled the Ottomans to transform the Cossack regions of the southern Ukraine into a protectorate. In 1676, when the grand vizier died, Mustafa succeeded him.

He was less successful in combatting a Cossack rebellion that began in 1678. After some initial victories, intervention by Russia turned the tide and forced the Turks to conclude peace in 1681, effectively returning the Cossack lands to Russian rule with the exception of a few forts on the Dnieper and Bug rivers.

In 1683, he launched a campaign northward into Austria in an effort to put a final end to more than 150 years of war. By mid-July, his 100,000-man army had besieged Vienna (guarded by 10,000 Habsburg soldiers), following in the footsteps of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1529. By September, he had taken a portion of the walls and appeared to be on his way to victory.

But on September 12, 1683, the Austrians and their Polish allies under King Jan Sobieski took advantage of Mustafa's incompetence and poor disposition of his troops winning the Battle of Vienna with a devastating flank attack led by Sobieski's Polish cavalry. The Turks retreated into Hungary, never again to threaten central Europe.

The defeat cost Mustafa his position, and ultimately, his life. On December 25, 1683, Kara Mustafa was executed in Belgrade by the order of the commander of the Janissaries. He suffered death by strangulation with a silk cord, and his head was delivered to Sultan Mehmed IV in a velvet bag, which was the capital punishment inflicted on high-ranking persons in the Ottoman Empire. Apparently his last words were, in effect, "Make sure you tie the knot right." His headstone was brought from Belgrade to Edirne, the second Ottoman capital, and has been displayed to the public. It is today a visitor's curiosity in Edirne.

[edit] Trivia

The story goes that Mustafa Pasha's retreating army left bags of green (unroasted) beans behind in Vienna. These formed the nucleus of the Viennese coffee trade. By a coincidence, the premises where they were found became, in 1891, Julius Meinl's coffee roasting plant.[1]